True Diversity Dinner: September 25, 2009

In the wake of Mayor Dan Sullivan’s veto of the Anchorage equal rights ordinance AO 2009-64, lots of people noted the irony of his having vetoed equal protection from discrimination for LGBTQ people in Anchorage just a month before Mayor’s Diversity Month.

Then the mayor, who seems more comfortable with “melting pot” views of American culture — we should all melt ourselves into some imagined universality that looks suspiciously like the same old “upper & middle class white heterosexual males are universal & everyone else is not” stuff that has served the “everyone else” of us so poorly, & has served plenty of white heterosexual males pretty badly too — decided to change the name of the Mayor’s Diversity Dinner to the Mayor’s Unity Dinner.

I don’t actually want to be assimilated. I kinda like being who I am.

Nor do I believe that resistance is futile.

Nor are we a “melting pot.” You all know the alternative analogies for meals that are far more nutritive & colorful: Stew. Salad. Something like this looks a lot better to me than what the mayor wants to serve up:

A few of us decided to do something about it.

So while Mayor Sullivan is serving up a $60/plate Borg dinner at the downtown Hilton, we’ll be celebrating the true richness of Anchorage’s diversity just a few blocks away at the Snow Goose — $10, just enough to cover costs. Progressive radio host and blogger Shannyn Moore will be the keynote speaker. And we’ll be handing out our own diversity awards.